Fluorocarbon solvents, such as trichlorotrifluoroethane, have attained widespread use in recent years as effective, nontoxic, and nonflammable agents useful in degreasing applications. Trichlorotrifluoroethane in particular has been found to have satisfactory solvent power for greases, oils, waxes and the like. Trichlorotrifluoroethane also finds wide use in removing solder fluxes from printed wiring boards and printed wiring assemblies in the electronics industry. Such circuit boards normally consist of a glass fiber reinforced plate of electrically resistant plastic having electrical circuit traces on one or both sides thereof. The circuit traces are thin flat strips of conductive metal, usually copper, which serve to interconnect the electronic components attached to the printed wiring board. The electrical integrity of the contacts between the circuit traces and the components is assured by soldering.
Current industrial processes of soldering circuit boards involve coating the entire circuit side of the board with a flux and thereafter passing the coated side of the board through molten solder. The flux cleans the conductive metal parts and promotes a reliable intermetallic bond between component leads and circuit traces and lands on the printed wiring board. The preferred fluxes consist, for the most part, of rosin used alone or with activating additives such as dimethylamine hydrochloride, trimethylamine hydrochloride, or an oxalic acid derivative.
After soldering, which thermally degrades part of the rosin, the flux is removed from the board by means of an organic solvent. Trichlorotrifluoroethane, being non-polar, adequately cleans rosin fluxes; however, it does not easily remove polar contaminants such as the activating additives.
To overcome this deficiency, trichlorotrifluoroethane has been mixed with polar components such as aliphatic alcohols or chlorocarbons such as methylene chloride. As example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,816 discloses the use of mixtures of 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane and methanol as defluxing solvents.
The art has looked, in particular, towards azeotropic compositions including the desired fluorocarbon components such as trichlorotrifluoroethane and other components which contribute additionally desired characteristics, such as polar functionality, hydrogen bonding strength, increased solvency power, and stability. Azeotropic compositions are desired because they exhibit a minimum boiling point and do not fractionate upon boiling. This is desirable because in vapor degreasing equipment with which these solvents are employed, redistilled material is generated for final rinse-cleaning. Thus, the vapor degreasing system acts as a still. Unless the solvent composition exhibits a constant boiling point, i.e., is an azeotrope or is azeotrope-like, fractionation will occur and undesirable solvent distribution may act to upset the cleaning and safety of processing. Preferential evaporation of the more volatile components of the solvent mixtures, which would be the case if they were not azeotropic or azeotrope-like, would result in mixtures with changed compositions which may have less desirable properties, such as lower solvency for rosin fluxes, less inertness towards the electrical components soldered on the printed circuit board, and increased flammability.
A number of trichlorotrifluoroethane based azeotrope compositions have been discovered which have been tested and in some cases employed as solvents for miscellaneous vapor degreasing and defluxing applications. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,213 discloses the azeotrope of 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane and nitromethane; U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,816 discloses an azeotropic composition of 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane and methanol; U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,746 discloses azeotrope-like compositions of 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane, methanol, and nitromethane; U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,407 discloses an azeotropic composition comprising of 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane, methanol, methyl acetate, and nitromethane; U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,366 discloses the ternary azeotrope of 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane, nitromethane and acetone, and Japanese Pat. No. 73-33878 discloses the ternary azeotrope of 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane, methanol, and acetone.
The art is continually seeking new fluorocarbon based azeotropic mixtures or azeotrope-like mixtures which offer alternatives for new and special applications for vapor degreasing and other cleaning applications.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide novel azeotrope-like compositions based on 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane which have good solvency power and other desirable properties for vapor degreasing applications and for the removal of solder fluxes from printed circuit boards.
Another object of the invention is to provide novel constant boiling or essentially constant boiling solvents which are liquid at room temperature, will not fractionate under conditions of use and also have the foregoing advantages.
A further object is to provide azeotrope-like compositions which are relatively nontoxic and nonflammable both in the liquid phase and the vapor phase. These and other objects and features of the invention will become more evident from the description which follows.